COUNCILS in and around Wellington have started talking about working closer together as a result of the expected mass shake-up of local government in Somerset.

Discussions about Somerset becoming a single unitary authority are still ongoing, a move led by the county council, while the four district councils want two unitary authorities.

But whatever option the Government prefers and whatever happens in the future it will probably mean that more responsibilities will be passed down to town and parish councils.

And it would appear that Wellington Town Council and neighbouring parish councils do not want to be caught on the hop when that time comes and representatives have already held an informal ‘get to know you’ meeting – albeit via the Zoom conferencing technology – last month.

Cllr Mark Lithgow, speaking on Zoom at the town council’s latest meeting, said: “We’ve been reaching out to other parishes. We don’t know what anything is going to look like and we can’t start planning

anything.

“But it makes good common sense on reaching out and looking at possible network partnerships.”

Cllr Lithgow added that the meeting ‘wasn’t just a get together and getting friendly’ but had been looking at how other parishes had been working together in other areas following the move to unitary authority status.

Other councils involved in last month’s informal meeting came from Nynehead, West Buckland, Sampford Arundel and Langford Budville.